MJF believes he changed the way modern wrestlers approach social media, and according to him, plenty of younger talent are now following the blueprint he created.
While speaking with SHAK Wrestling, MJF discussed his commitment to staying in character full-time and maintaining the same persona online that fans see on television. He explained that when he first started taking that approach, many wrestlers inside the business wanted nothing to do with him. MJF said he can now see younger wrestlers beginning to adopt the same strategy that originally made him stand out from the pack.
“Sure. I I see people following what I started on social media now. I see younger guys doing it the way that they’re tweeting or posting videos. Um, which you know when I started doing that it helped me explode. But the fact of the matter is is when I started doing it I got a lot of what wrestling fans would call heat with people in the industry and they didn’t want to share locker rooms with me. They didn’t want to wrestle me. They didn’t want to hear me cut a promo on them because they didn’t want to deal with it.”
MJF also took aim at wrestlers who portray hatred on television only to immediately praise their opponents online afterward. According to him, that completely destroys the realism professional wrestling is supposed to create.
“When I see guys, and there are some of these guys I respect, but I see guys, they’re on TV and then they go on uh Twitter, oh my god, I just had such a great match with so and so. I had I’ve had so much fun at work these last couple of weeks. It’s it’s it makes me want to vomit. It’s disgusting. That’s not why I got in this sport. I got in this sport to talk [ __ ] I got in the sport to beat people up and I got in the sport to make a whole lot of money doing it.”
MJF has built much of his wrestling identity around blurring the line between reality and storyline, and these comments make it clear he believes that approach is one of the main reasons he became one of AEW’s biggest stars. Whether fans love him or hate him, he clearly thinks authenticity matters more than playing a role.
Do you agree with MJF’s view on wrestlers staying in character online, or do you prefer today’s more open approach on social media? Let us know your thoughts and leave your feedback in the comments.
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